At her Belle in Brooklyn blog, The Root contributing editor Demetria L. Lucas congratulates Touré, who slammed Piers Morgan Friday on his own show, Piers Morgan Tonight, over the mishandling of an interview with George Zimmerman's brother, Robert, the previous night.
Short story, and I promise this is going somewhere. Eons ago, I studied abroad in London. I had five roommates in a three-bedroom apartment; like The Real World, but less fancy. The morning we were to leave to head back to the States, our property manager stopped by the apartment at 10AM to see how much havoc six college students had wreaked upon the unit. He showed up on time, the morning after our drunken last night of revelry, let himself into the apartment — maybe he rung the bell, maybe he didn't — and knocked quickly on the door of the bedroom I shared with a female roommate. Without waiting for a response, the property manager opened the door. My roommate was awake, and an every courteous and non-assuming Midwest girl, asked politely, "Are you here to inspect the apartment?"
Him: "Well, I'm not here for breakfast."
He thought it was funny and missed the inappropriateness of barging in on two women in their bedclothes. Given the hour and that there was a strange man standing in my bedroom, I did not see the humor, but I noticed the gall and the balls, neither of which I respected given the occasion. But it's unmistakenly British. They are culturally known well for their brusque one-liners and their lack of tact when annoyed, as the property manager was that we were not prepared for his arrival.
Piers Morgan, the British import with a prime and enviable slot on CNN's lineup, has been oft-clowned as a bad journalist and an affirmative action case of sorts. Until Morgan went toe-to-toe with writer/author/personality Toure’ on his show Friday night, I'd never bothered to tune in. But I'd heard Morgan ridiculed, most especially about the Thursday night interview he conducted with Robert Zimmerman, the brother of trigger-happy George Zimmerman, whose infamy you're surely aware of by now. Morgan was blasted for allowing Robert to make outlandish statements that defied common sense, such as brother George not being on neighborhood-watch duty the night he murdered Trayvon, but instead on his way to Target. Morgan didn't follow up to ask the obvious, "So why did he have his gun?"
Read Demetria L. Lucas' entire blog entry at A Belle in Brooklyn.